Sidney Crosby was saying all the right things about playing Broadway for the first time; that he had been looking forward to it, that the Garden was a historic building, yada, yada, yada.

But the 18-year-old wunderkind admitted that yesterday wasn’t the date he’d circled on his calendar upon publication of the NHL schedule. Rather, he said, he had circled Jan. 3, when the Penguins play in Montreal for the first time, that one day after a game in Toronto that will represent his team’s first regular-season visit to his native Canada.

“The Canadiens were my team growing up,” said the 2005 first-overall draft pick for whom the league instituted a 30-team weighted sweepstakes. “That’s the one I have circled on the calendar.”

Crosby’s Garden debut was not the stuff of legend or anticipation as, say, Larry Bird’s first game at the self-styled World’s Most Famous Arena. This is, after all, hockey. But the media savvy kid was savvy enough to talk about the history of the Garden.

“New York is a special city and the Garden’s a special place, with all the history here,” said Crosby, Nova Scotia born-and-bred, who’d never been to New York City before Sunday. “I’m looking forward to playing at MSG.”

Crosby said his greatest memory of the Garden was watching the Rangers win the Stanley Cup. That, of course, was in 1994, when Crosby would have been two months shy of his seventh birthday.

“I could tell from watching on TV what a great atmosphere it is here,” he said.

Crosby, who came into last night’s game with 18 points (4-14) in 14 games for the terribly disappointing 3-6-5 Penguins, was named the league’s rookie of the month by the NHL Communications Department over the more deserving but less hyped Alexander Ovechkin, the Capital who has recorded 15 points (10-5) without the benefit of teammates named Mario Lemieux, Mark Recchi or Zigmund Palffy.

“I didn’t really have any expectations coming in,” Crosby, who combines magical hands and vision with an extraordinary first stride, said. “I just try to work hard every night on my game and be productive.

“I knew this was going to be a challenge, and it has been.”

Jaromir Jagr, whose 14 goals have him tied for second in the league with Daniel Alfredsson, one off the pace set by Simon Gagne, said that he could not recall his first game in New York when he was an 18-year-old rookie with the Penguins in the 1990-91 season.

“It wasn’t anything that was special for me, but there really was no city in the league that was special to me because back then in Czech, nobody knew anything about the NHL,” Jagr said following the morning skate. “Now, it’s all about the NHL.

“The game I probably remember most was my first game in Boston Garden, because the rink was so small. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do or where to go. Every time I turned around, I was running into the boards. I didn’t touch the puck the whole first period.”

That wasn’t likely to be the case for Crosby – skating on a line with Lemieux – last night.

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Kevin Weekes was in nets for this third straight start … Ville Niememen was reinserted into the lineup after sitting on Saturday. The winger replaced Jason Strudwick, who’d moved up to forward from his natural defense position for that game against the Devils.

Rangers went into last night’s match 5-1-2 at home, gaining at least a point in seven of their first eight at the Garden. They’ll play their next five on the road – at Florida, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Carolina – where they’re 3-3-1.